After the End
by MamoruSan
Summary: Severus Snape finds himself awake in a paradise, after his death. *There are only two chapters, which can be thought of as the Prologue and the Epilogue. If any are interested in what happens in between, leave a review saying so, and perhaps one day...*
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harry Potter. Nor do I wish to. I do, however, wish to own Severus Snape. And Draco Malfoy. And Lucius Malfoy. And Bartemius Crouch Jr. (But only the David Tennant version. Movie version.)

**Author's Note:** Severus was my favorite character in HP, when I was reading it, and I was so for the fact that he was played out to be the bad guy, although I always knew he was a good guy (since Dumbly believed in him and all). I will admit, I did cry when he died. I read that book in 10 hours straight, the night it came out. Quite amazing...

* * *

Severus Snape opened his eyes, stirring from what felt like a long nap. He looked straight up into the blue sky, watching the clouds float by peacefully. What a nice scenery it was. It almost made dying worth it.

Wait, was he dead? Last thing he could remember was- Nothing. He racked his brains, trying to think why he was here. Before coming here, he could barely remember anything. But he knew it wasn't this beautiful, was it? It was-

Dark. He was in a forest. And he was dying of poison from a snake bite. And the last thing he saw was-

_Green_. He thought. _My favorite color._

Yes, those huge green eyes belonging to his first and only love. _No, they weren't hers._ He remembered, as his head started to clear up. No, it had been the eyes of her son. The son that should have been his. Instead, that bastard had-

_Green_ He thought again, as two green orbs came into view over his head, floating only a few inches above his head.

"Thank you, Potter." Severus muttered, finally remembering his last seconds with the boy. He closed his eyes. Green was such a beautiful color.

A giggle.

Severus opened his eyes again. Those green eyes were still there, except that they were accompanied with the most radiant smile he could ever have imagined.

"Really, Severus, when did you start calling me by my surname?

A female voice. Severus tried to focus on the eyes, for they were too close, and too beautiful for him to concentrate on anything else. But that voice, that voice was so familiar. He knew who it was instantly.

"Lily?" he whispered, trying to bring his hand up to her face. He found himself as stiff as a board, not being able to move his limbs at all. "Is this real?"

Another giggle.

"Depends on what you think real is." The face disappeared from above him, and Severus wanted to cry out immediately, to call for it to come back. He squirmed, trying to raise himself up on his hands, but with no luck. It was as if he was petrified. Luckily, the voice was still there.

"You're gonna be a bit stiff, for at least a few more minutes." Lily's wonderful voice spoke to him. "That's the rigor mortis fading away as your body gets used to this place." Severus felt a hand on his stiff arm, a warm hand, her hand.

"Where am I?" he asked the sky, since he couldn't turn to see her.

"You're in Essence." Lily said simply, letting her hand wander up and down her old friend's arm, trying to speed up his warming process. "When witches and wizards die, their souls are weighed, and some are sent to Essence." Severus heard a chuckle. "Well, I guess in muggle sense, it's like Heaven."

Severus closed his eyes again. So he really was dead. But Essence? He had done so many bad things in his life, did he really deserve to come here? As if reading his question from his silence, Lily chuckled again.

"No one knows what the criteria is for coming here." she said, slightly sadly, he noticed. "There are those who make mistakes their whole life, but one redeeming event can bring them here. There are those who lived a brilliant adulthood, but since they were not as brilliant as children, they were rejected."

Severus' ears perked up at this. Could that mean what he so hoped it meant? Urging his body to move, he finally steadily sat up, his limbs still creaking and stiff. Looking around, he noticed that he was in a middle of a field, with nothing around them for miles, except a long dirt path. He found Lily sitting on his right, crying softly. He placed a stiff hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him and gave him a small smile.

"I am glad you came here, though, Sev." she said, leaning forward onto him to grasp him tightly into a hug. Awkwardly, Severus returned the hug.

"I'm sorry." he said, simply, for her tears. "Where do they go if not here?" Lily shrugged.

"I haven't the slightest." she said. "It's not like their some great deity overlooking us, telling us the truths of the world and warning us about a worse place." she forced a laugh. "That part is different from the muggle stories. But when you arrive here, you're greeted by the one you cared for the most, given that they died before you. See, we get a notice." she pulled out a small leaflet from her pocket. "I was so glad when I got this, because it meant I was going to be able to see my best friend again." she game him another wan smile, trying to hide her tears.

"So who did you meet?" Severus chanced a question. "I mean, you were muggleborn, and..." he let his voice trail off, not wanting to bring up her husband.

Lily smiled. "You're right, I didn't have anybody here who was close to me. So, Professor Durnage, from Care of Magical Creatures, remember him? He came to see me." Severus made a disgusted face.

"You considered _him_ someone you cared for?" he asked disdainfully. True, that man had always been soft on the red-headed genius, but he had been such a horrible professor, always out drinking, instead of teaching. Severus shook his head and sighed. "So, what happens now?"

Lily stood up and held out a hand to help him stand up.

"Now, we head to our lodgings." she said, cheerful again. "I made up a nice and cozy little room for you in my home. It's a nice place to stay, at least until it's time our time to move back on to the living world." Severus took her hand and stood up. He smiled, the first real smile he had allowed to cross his face since the years of his childhood when he had first met Lily.

"It'll be nice to have another chance with you."

Clasping each other's hand tightly, the two left the field and made the long journey back to Lily's dwelling.


	2. Epilogue

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter. I would love to own Alan Rickman's voice. I wonder how much it would cost for him to sell the rights to his voice to me...

**Author's Note:** I'm only doing the prologue and the epilogue to what could possibly be a good story. I could do the in-between bits, but I'm a bit lazy. Perhaps if I get a few people who'd be interested in what happened in the years between (or after) these chapters, then maybe I'll work on that someday. ^_^

* * *

"Lily, I can't find my overcoat!" Severus called from the second floor. He was standing in front of a mirror, straightening his clothes, looking proper for the first time in his sixty years in Essence. He hadn't a reason to look nice before this moment, for it was only ever him and Lily, and they had gone way beyond formalities after all the years of spending time together. _But,_ Severus mused, _since the notice came, I should look my best._

"It's down here, buried underneath all your books." Lily shouted back from the first floor. Severus sighed. What a bother it was to have gotten a notice now. He couldn't have even believed he had received one, as there wasn't anyone he cared about still in the living world. But still, one came for him.

He glanced at the leaflet that was laying on the bedside table. It was a yellowed piece of parchment, with only a name and a time on it. At noon, he would be going out to the same field Lily had found him in, his first day in Essence, to see-

"Oh no, wait, it's your trousers." Lily shouted, her voice penetrating his thoughts. "I don't know where your overcoat has gone, Sev, why don't you just go without one?" The black haired man sighed again. How would he look his best without it?

He turned from the mirror and headed down the stairs into the living room where Lily was scrunched onto the couch, surrounded by stacks of books. She smiled at him as he entered, and put down the book she had been reading.

"Are you ready?" she asked, excitedly. Severus shrugged.

"As ready as I could possibly be." he said, in monotone. "But I don't understand why I was chosen for this one. You'd think the person he cared about the most was Dumbledore." He let himself fall onto the couch next to Lily and felt her lean against him. Putting an arm around her, he leaned into her as well, the two cuddling warmly.

"Dumbledore never made it here, you know that." Lily whispered into Severus's shirt. He nodded. The aged wizard had been rejected from Essence, for reasons unknown. The roster that had been put up in the middle of the housing area had a list of those living in Essence, and those that had recently departed to their new lives. And the old Headmaster of Hogwarts had been on neither list. Severus sighed.

"Still, I can't imagine that I am the person they'd want to meet the moment they were dead." he said. Lily chuckled at him.

"Why wouldn't he?" she asked. "You were the most important person for that one moment in their life, and without you, the War wouldn't have been won." Severus scoffed. He highly doubted that. Removing his arm from Lily, Severus stood up, and stretched, brushing down his clothes for any creases.

"Well, I suppose I should be on my way." he said, running his hand through his long black hair. He had let it grow out since he arrived in Essence. Lily thought it suited him more, and he was more than happy to please her. Lily stood up from the couch and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"You're going to bring him home here, yes?" she asked, whispering into his ear. Severus shivered slightly as her breath caressed his neck.

"He's an old man, Lily." he said. "He can take care of himself." Lily pulled away, a frown apparent on her face.

"Doesn't change the fact that I'd like him around, Sev." she said sternly, locking her green eyes onto his black ones. He sighed, defeated. After all these years, he still couldn't get away from those beautiful green orbs.

"If he'll follow, I shall bring him home." he said. Gleefully, Lily brought him in for a hug. Smiling softly, Severus patted her back. As she pulled away again from his neck, she leaned in to give him a small kiss. Happily, he accepted, the two locked in a wonderful embrace.

Severus broke the kiss as he heard the chime of the clock on the mantle toll. It was noon, and he would be late for the meeting. Giving Lily one more slight smile, he rushed out the door and down the path towards the field.

Their house was near the edge of the housing area, but he still had to pass a few dwellings, including one of an old colleague of his. He waved as he passed her house, as she was laying outside on her lawn chair, basking in the wonderful skylight. The old woman nodded at him curtly, before giving him a slight smile.

"And where are you heading today, Severus?" she asked, sitting up. Her grey hair was in a tight bun and was pulled back, still the same from when she had been alive.

"Just down to the field." he said, pulling out his leaflet. "I have a notice, you see." Interested, she stood up and headed towards her fence.

"Oh? Who's the lucky person?" she asked, half sarcastically. The animosity that had been built up between them when they had been coworkers hadn't completely disappeared in the ten years she had been there, even after she knew of his whole story. She couldn't help but call up old feelings when speaking to him. Severus handed her the parchment. She laughed, hollowly, looking at the name.

"That's quite a surprise." she said, handing it back. Turning around and waving over her shoulder, she made her way back to her lawn chair. "Give him my regards."

"I shall, Minerva." Severus said, bowing slightly, before heading on his way. He passed out of the neighborhood and started down the dirt path into the field. As the scenery around him changed, with less and less trees, he noticed a body laying in the middle of the same field he had been laying in on a similar day such as this sixty years ago.

He made his way up to the body, and raised an eyebrow. Yes, many years had passed, but he hadn't expect to see him looking like this, as an old and slightly chubby warlock. He brought his hand to his mouth to stifle a chuckle. Oh, how the mighty allow themselves to get carried away in indulgences.

The person on the ground stared up into the sky, his body as stiff as a board. His eyes wandered among the clouds, the green clashing with the blue. His robes were a rich ruby red, and his waistline was bulging slightly. His hair was as grey as a wolf's, and that thick goatee lay plastered on his chin very well, accenting the rest of his face.

Severus came up beside the nonmoving body and leaned over, to let his eyes catch those of the one on the ground, to see again, what he had seen for the last time in his living life. The old potions master could help but let a grin appear on his face when he saw those green orbs widen at his appearance.

"Hello, Mr. Potter. We meet again at last."


End file.
